Went to Aldham Church this morning rather early. Partly because it was the Remembrance Day Service; and partly because I was reading the Old Testament Lesson, and I do like to have a quick pre service read of the lesson to refresh my memory. The reading - this bit is for Crowbard as he likes to know these things- was from the sixty first chapter of Isaiah. All went well through the service. Felt just a bit wobbly towards the end of the two minutes silence- slight balance problems these days - Ann noticed, and braced me up a bit - all then went well again. At the end of the service our organist John Smith (who does everything else as well (our new Rector has five parishes to serve- which means he gets to ours roughly once a month). This means that john (who could give me about ten years or so) does most things at least three Sundays per month, and this Sunday at the end of the Service John announce that we would now, as per usual on Armistice Sunday, sing the National Anthem, which is in the back of our hymn books. John pointed this out and then said "It says omit verse two. But we're not going to this morning. We're Jolly Well Going to Sing it ALL." which we did. Verse two is the one that goes :-
Oh Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies,
and make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks.
On Thee our hopes we fix.
God save us all.
John played the organ with great gusto. We all sang all three verses with similar gusto; and a jolly good time was had by all.
I thanked John after the service and said :- "As far as I can remember, John, I haven't sung ALL three verses of the Anthem since I left School; But I've often wanted to." David, another parishioner, said something like "Politically it seemed a jolly good and apt time to sing that verse", and everyone in earshot agreed with us......................So There!
5 comments:
I've nothing against all these foreign Johnnies coming here and joining in with we native Brits (whose forebears also arrived and joined in with the native locals of their day). As long as they join in and sing along with verse two we know their hearts are in the right places. I believe our Hoenir/Horner lineage was from a ninth century Viking settler originally.
Lets face it, but for our history of invasions we'd all be Welsh.
I think we should sing it every time, the only ones who could possibly get upset would be the enemies... And as there are none, then we're all alright ... I hope. Xxx
What a horrid thought, Crowbard!
Thank you Rough - quite agree. And anyway, even if there were any, they'd never dare admit it.
Taffy, also spelled David and possibly Dyffedd, was a Welsh-man. I can recommend a visit to the charming little city of St Davids.
St David was Born: circa 500 AD, Pembrokeshire Died: 1 March 589 AD, St Davids
Parents: Saint Non, Sant.
Grandparent: Cynyr Goch.
Great-grandparent: Ysfael Gwron.
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